Friday, June 29, 2012

My week in pictures, again…

No, I’m not planning to make this a permanent feature, but it just worked out that I had another random group of photos from the week gone by that I wanted to share.

Last weekend I stayed with my friends Erin and Matt up in Seattle, the nursery loop was our primary agenda item, but just hanging out on their patio and enjoying a glass of wine was a close #2. The first night was a washout but the second proved to be exactly what we hoped for. Naturally I had to snap a couple photos of Erin’s container garden on the patio (containers = doggie proof).

Her objective for our nursery visits had been to fill the empty containers (9 of them!). While she found a few treasures there are still a few with no occupants. Luckily she’s planning a trip to Portland in July…more plant shopping!

I’m counting on someone (Louis?) being able to identify this Palm. She picked it up at the big box store for pennies on the dollar last fall and it made it through the winter.

Is it a Trachycarpus just without a furry trunk?

On the way back to Portland on Sunday I stopped in at Jungle Fever (in Tacoma). I had reached my plant purchasing limit (I know, you didn’t think I had one did you?) so after a quick tour through the nursery (not lingering too long for fear of temptation) I headed up to check out the owners personal garden.

I’ve posted about this garden before (here and here), but like all gardens it’s constantly changing so I figured a few more pictures were in order…

What a wonderful mass of Veratrum californicum...

I didn't expect last summers bloom spike to still be standing, it makes me really happy that it is!

Melianthus blooms!

Tuesday rolled around and it was time to take the yard waste container out to the curb. I HATE to take it out partially empty, and I knew the Echium bloom was coming down soon so I started chopping. I know...it's almost a sin, but it was feeling oppressive and starting to look ragged. The hummingbirds had even stopped visiting, although the bees were still loving it. Here's the after...

And a "before" to memorialize, taken in early June...

It's so nice to be able to see the patio, and to walk by without feeling like it was going to fall on you (after all of the heavy rain it was leaning quite significantly).

Here's the stump, along with the branch that extends over to...

...this! Boy if this guy lives through the winter to bloom next year it's going to be HUGE!

Later in the week, on another dog-walk, I spot this...

...you know it's summer when there are forts being built!

I wonder what a caulisiter is? Well there are none allowed...

Just down from the fort I spotted this. After confirming it was a cast off I took it home. Painted and planted up with an Agave it could be pretty cool, or it could end up looking like this big mistake.

Time for a haircut (for me)...every visit the salon I end-up parking right in front of this stock tank planter. I've enjoyed watching it mature and fill in.

The Opuntia looks fabulous!

But the poor Blue Fescue ends up being an ashtray...

Another day...I pulled this Agave from it's container to give it to a friend (and use the container for something else) and was surprised to find a pup trapped at the bottom, going around and around...

That's almost 40" of pup...

I leave you with a combination I've been enjoying just outside my front door. Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' with Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmott's Ghost'...

Guess what...it's almost July!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Coming face to face with the enemy…

I never thought I would see this

…in a nursery, but I did! Last Sunday in Seattle, at one of my old favorites, City Peoples Garden Store (I’ve blogged about them here, here, and here). I briefly entertained the idea of buying them all and then staging some dramatic protest in the parking lot. But then I figured there are probably more where those came from (after all we all know what a prolific plant this is!). And besides, really who am I to tell others what they can plant in their garden? I just hope I won’t ever be gardening where they’ve gardened. At least they did have a perfectly lovely sign warning of the danger…

And speaking of danger…

Next to those dangerous Yuccas was a whole bunch of small Nolina nelsonii…

Ever since reading about them (and seeing the picture!) on Linda Cochran’s blog I’ve been wanting one. Of course this poor little guy is tiny. Maybe in 30 years it will look like hers.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Doing the Kitsap Peninsula: so many nurseries, so little time…


Last Saturday my friend Erin and I hit the road from her place in West Seattle bright early, intent on doing a big nursery loop around the Kitsap Peninsula. I really wanted to return to Dragonfly Farms Nursery and, since I’d never been, I hoped to squeeze in a visit to Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend. In my dream world we also would have made it out to Sequim and The Desert Northwest but even I had to admit that was a little too much to cram into a day trip.

Our plans were altered early on with the crazy Rock-n-Roll Marathon closing most of the roads around downtown Seattle (who knew?) and causing us to miss the early ferry. I think I was still rattled by that experience when we made our first stop at Valley Nursery in Poulsbo, WA as I didn’t even pull out my camera to document the stop (this turns into a somewhat consistent theme for the day…). Our next stop was Dragonfly Farms (pictures above and below) and we were in luck as the owner Heidi was there, running around answering questions.

I had forgotten about the Bocconia frutescens (Tree Poppy) I saw and fell hard for last summer in Heidi’s garden so I wasn’t sure this was the same plant until I asked Heidi about the price and she confirmed it, remembering that I had asked about in her garden.

Spiky goodness here, on both the leaves and the stems of this Oplopanax horridus (Devil’s Club)…

I was hoping that one of the huge Schefflera delavayi would magically be for sale at a price I could afford, but no such luck.

Crambe Maritima…I came close to buying this crazy little plant, but did not.

At Heidi’s urging we abandoned our next stop and instead visited Celestial Dream Gardens. I’ve been emailing with Jeff, the owner, about getting his plants on plant lust and had no idea they were so close. If you’re nearby (like perhaps visiting the Heronswood open garden next weekend) you should definitely stop in. They’re small but have a great selection of very healthy plants and a wonderful display garden…which unfortunately I didn’t take a single picture of. Why? The sky opened up just as Jeff was touring us through, and (this is the most important reason)…we were very hungry, low blood sugar = scattered thinking.

Which leads me to our next stop…lunch! I felt like a food blogger pulling out my camera to snap a shot of my salad...but look at those crazy things on top! Rat-tail radishes (Raphanus sativus 'Caudatus'). Have you ever seen them before? I hadn’t and they were amazing. Kind of like a mellow yet peppery radish. I want to grow them!

Next stop…Far Reaches Farm. I knew the owners, Kelly and Sue, were unfortunately going to be out of town, so I was prepared for that. What I wasn’t prepared for was shopping in heavy rain showers. It definitely curtailed my photo taking.

At first I thought we could seek cover inside here…

But the roof is only lath, providing shade but no protection from the rain.

So lush!

For those of you who receive the Far Reaches email newsletter some these plants will be familiar, here is the Paris japonica clump that Dan Hinkley reportedly called “almost the best he had ever seen”…

I didn’t get the name of this one, but love the way the blooms cluster under the whorls of leaves.

Cardiocrinum giganteum (Giant Himalayan Lily), pracitically impossible to get a good photo of…

Mertensia maritima…

…evidently quite in demand since they have such a lovely patch of it growing in their garden. Unlike mine, which failed to return from last winter.

Wouldn’t you know it as we headed towards Bainbridge Island and the ferry back to Seattle (having abandoned our last planned nursery stop since we were running out of time) the skies cleared and it became a sunny evening.

We were stunned to be the lucky ones that got the front row parking spot on the ferry; this was the view from our car as we approached the city, not bad eh?

And here is our haul for the day…

That sexy Melianthus is my friend Erin's...not mine...(sad)

I bought the Bocconia frutescens, how could I not?

And this fabulous Aloe came from our first stop, Valley Nursery. The price was right and it looked like it needed a good home.

This was my purchase at Far Reaches…Curculigo sp. JSM

I can’t be sure, because I can’t find a photo, but I think I spotted this at the NW Flower and Garden Show last February. Then I thought it was a palm seedling but now I know it’s something entirely different… “Ornamental species of unknown hardiness collected by Josh McCullough in North Vietnam. Broad pleated leaves with yellow six-petaled flowers clustered near the leaf bases. A lot of the plants coming out of the mountains there are proving hardier than thought. This would likely survive in a mild garden here but surviving and looking good are two different things. Best to treat this as the outrageous container plant that is bringing it inside for the winter. A cool sunroom is fine. This carries an aspect of tremendous refinement and would cause any container designer to salivate.”

They had a couple of plants which were blooming but I didn’t choose one of those because they weren’t “the best”…and then of course I neglected to take a photo of the flower. If you would like to see it click on over to the Far Reaches website where they’ve got a photo.

Our stop at Celestial Dream Gardens yielded a couple of fine Eryngiums, first E. paniculatum…

Love those spikes!

And E. pandanifolium…

As the title of this post alluded to there were so many other nurseries we didn’t get a chance to stop at. I’m already scheming for the next trip…